Khao Yai national park 15-17 July '11

Tony our guide picked us up from the Pathumwan Princess at 5 am, for the half day drive to the park. His partner- girlfriend or whatever drove us, in a Pajero 4wd. Absolutely delightful girl called Aoy. The outskirts of Bangkok are as grotty as you would expect, then the moderate hills of the park approached, forest covered. It was showery, and we discovered it was a national holiday and Bangkok citizens would likely head in droves to the park - and they did. We stopped repeatedly at roadside venues to look at the hills, where wild tigers and elephants still live, and to see some of the incredible birdlife. It included 3 species of hornbill, the Asian equivalent of the South American Toucan. The Hornbills are larger, less graceful but still impressive and noisy denizens of the upper canopy. We were also thrilled to hear and see Gibbons, those long armed aerialists that swing through the trees. Their calling is wonderful - musical whoops and hollering that carries a long way. There were also pig tailed Macaques at roadside, materializing out of the bush when we stopped the vehicle. 'Very bad' we were told - don't put any item down, leave a car door open or let one approach closely. On several occasions we encountered larger troops of these monkeys on the road, bringing traffic to a standstill. Absolute indifference on the part of the Macaques, sitting and a walking where they chose. There were also wild deer, Samba, seen regularly in forest openings.

We walked in the forest on later occasions but for day 1 it was all roadside. There was continual traffic to contend with but we still saw wonderful birdlife such as the two species of Trogon that live there, colorful but elusive. Being wet there were leeches even at roadside. We rocked in our new gaiters, well drenched in repellant, although Shanti discovered one bloody splotch on her knee that night where one had crawled up. We watched them closely they can move rapidly, covering a metre of ground in maybe 20 seconds then once on you can climb quickly until they find a place to bite.

Apparently we had to get away early the next morning, and another guide turned up for a free ride maybe, and we drove back into the forest. This time we walked into the forest and were drowned by cicada noise and Gibbons whooping. We were chasing the tiny forest kIngfisher, to no good effect, but loved the experience of being in this untouched part of the forest. After lunch in a local camping ground again (rice, with several dishes of accompaniments, some spicy), we drove to our final destination for the day, a bat cave. On dusk, bats started emerging then flew in an unbroken stream, with an audible rush like water and sometimes a burst of staccato chattering from a bat that strayed closed. Early in the piece a peregrine falcon turned up and dive bombed the column otherwise it was just the extraordinary sight of the endless bats issuing into a hot, spectacularly clouded evening sky. It takes over an hour for the millions of bats to all emerge.

About a 16 hour day before we hit bed that night, but at least this time we did not have to contend with a nearby barking dog going off half the night.

Apparently we had to get away very early the next morning, to see water birds at a large irrigation dam, on the way to our end of trip drop off at the city of Ayuthaya. The highlight of the day was lunch. We stopped at a fairly shabby looking location and climbed steps to a covered deck, right beside and within touching distance of one of those extraordinary messes of wires that festoon power poles country wide. Being a fresh water fishery area we tried some whole fish dishes, with various bowls of curry pastes, and the usual wonderful thin soup of cocoanut milk, ginger, lemon grass, chili and often a fish head. By evening we finished a long day dropped of in Ayuthaya, the former capital of Thailand in the days it was called Siam.